Mississippi is about to change its status as one of only six states without a lottery. Lawmakers recently passed, and Governor Phil Bryant said he will sign, a measure creating a state lottery. The final House vote was 64-49, and the Senate vote was 31-17. “This is a historic day in Mississippi. Mississippi lawmakers rose to the occasion,” Bryant wrote on Twitter.
Supporters said it would take about a year to establish the lottery. They estimated it could generate $40 million in the first year and then $80 million a year for Mississippi. Bryant said he would use the money help pay for repairing crumbling highways and bridges. More than 400 of Mississippi’s city and county bridges are closed because they are in bad repair, and the state Department of Transportation said it needs at least $400 million more per year just to keep roads and bridges from deteriorating .
Bryant has until the middle of the month to sign the bill. He’ll appoint five people to serve on a lottery corporation. “We’re going to take our time. It’s going to be a very careful and deliberate process of picking just the right people,” he said. Bryant began promoting a lottery more than a year ago, noting every year Mississippi residents drive to Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee to buy millions of dollars of lottery tickets.
Politically powerful Baptist and Pentecostal group opposed the lottery bill, calling it a regressive tax on poor people in one of the nation’s poorest states. The influential casino lobby did not oppose a lottery, but fought some lawmakers’ ultimately unsuccessful efforts to allow video lottery terminals in truck stops.
State Rep. Bill Denny said had opposed a lottery for more than two decades, but he voted for the current bill because his constituents in Jackson want it. “Every time I go to the grocery store, they say, ‘Bill, we need the lottery,’” Denny said. State Rep. Greg Holloway also said, “My people have contacted me. They want the lottery and I want them to have what they want.”
Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada and Utah will be the only states without a lottery.
